It was morning in San Francisco on December 7 of last year, and a self-driving car and a motorcyclist were both motoring down Oak Street. The autonomous car, a white 2016 Chevy Bolt, started to make a lane change to the left from the center lane, then aborted it—the gap it was moving into shrank. When it slid back into the center lane of the three-lane street, it collided with a motorcycle that had been passing on the right. The motorcycle and its rider fell to the ground.
The accident triggered a lawsuit for over $75,000 against General Motors, which owns the automation company Cruise; the 27-year-old plaintiff, Oscar Willhelm Nilsson, went on disability leave because, according to the suit, he “suffered injuries to his neck and shoulder and will require lengthy treatment.”
Welcome to the fascinating world of accidents involving vehicles that drive themselves and make decisions on their own.
The legal system will now need to determine where any blame lies. In a report filed by GM to California’s DMV, the company states, referencing a traffic report, that “the motorcyclist was determined to be at fault for attempting to overtake and pass another vehicle on the right…” Traffic at the time was “heavy,” and the company says that the biker had been lane-splitting, which is legal in the state and involves a rider cruising between two lanes of traffic. (Read the full document here.)
According to the police traffic collision report, a copy of which was obtained by Popular Science, the driver of the Cruise said that “he attempted to take control of the self-driving vehicle by grabbing the wheel, but simultaneously collided with [the motorcycle].” The weather was clear, the roadway, dry. The fire department took Nilsson to the hospital.
"Safety is our primary focus when it comes to developing and testing our self-driving technology,” a GM spokesperson said in an emailed statement. “In this matter, the SFPD collision report stated that the motorcyclist merged into our lane before it was safe to do so.”
Reached by phone, Sergei Lemberg, the lawyer representing Nilsson, said that “our position is that GM is 100% responsible for this accident” because their car hit Nilsson, and referred to the automated vehicle’s action as “unpredictable and dangerous.”